News Details

New state initiative aims to reduce Illinois’ red tape, help employers

10/18/2016

A new statewide initiative aims to reduce Illinois’ “red tape” in order lessen the burden of over-regulation and onerous rules on employers as a way to promote economic growth and job creation in the state of Illinois.

Senate Republican lawmakers have long encouraged policies that would make it easier for established employers, and also attract new businesses and entrepreneurs to Illinois. For years, Senate GOP legislators have echoed concerns raised by the business community, which continue to stress the state’s duplicative, contradictory and outdated regulations make it unnecessarily difficult—in some cases time and/or cost prohibitive—to do business in Illinois.

An executive order was signed by Governor Rauner on October 17 creating an Illinois Competitiveness Council, which will look at all state policies, rules and regulations with the goal of cultivating an atmosphere that makes it easier for employers to develop and succeed.

The Council will review agency rules and make sure regulations are still up-to-date and relevant to current industries and practices; ensure the rules are easily understood; reduce unnecessarily burdensome business requirements; and confirm that the regulation is necessary.

Council members will also look for ways to improve the state’s licensure process as a way to secure job creation. According to the administration, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) has more than a million active licenses in more than 200 license categories, however for nearly a third, IDFPR has issued fewer than 100 licenses. The growth of these licenses has increased 184 percent in the last 20 years.

Reducing burdensome and needless bureaucracy will make Illinois more competitive in the global market, and will have a great impact on small businesses, particularly minority-owned businesses, which are disproportionately affected by superfluous overregulation, policies and licensure requirements.

Comprised of a representative from each of Illinois’ state regulator agencies, the Illinois Competitiveness Council hopes to save Illinoisans at least $250 million in direct license fee costs over the next decade, and save Illinois taxpayers and business owners at least 4 million pages in paperwork.

In order to have the greatest impact, the Illinois Competitiveness Council is seeking input from the public on which rules and regulations are the biggest hindrance to people and businesses. Anyone can submit feedback to cut the red tape at www.illinois.gov/cut.